Internet Connection via Wireless
 

I am looking to get a laptop (in addition to my PC) and use the Internet via a wireless connection and the BT Home Hub.

Currently my PC is connected to the BT Home Hub via a ethernet cable, will this PC need anything wireless wise (something it currently does not have) when I get the laptop?

It is the BT Home Hub that should have the wireless connectivity. Check its manual which should also have the instructions and password for connecting a laptop.

I've just done mine through the same system and it works fine.

Alternatively (as I did accidently. Honest), use the neighbours!!!

Cheers

Whirls

You will need to ensure that the laptop has wifi built in, or buy a wifi card to insert into the slot.

You will then need to get a wireless Home Hub from BT, or an ASDL wifi router to plug in, instead of the existing Home Hub, unless that is already a wifi unit.

BT should be able to tell you, but look for a 4" long antenna (cigarette sized) - if you can't see on on the HH, then it's not a wifi one.

In a nutshell no, my system is: the main PC is e/net connected, the upstairs PC is wireless, lap tops can either use wireless or e/net, depending where they are being used. BUT make sure you use good encryption, the default one on the BT hub is piss poor.

Recommend any?

At present there are 2 wifi encryption standards - WEP (Wired Equivalence Privacy) and WPA/WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access).

WEP is rubbish - can be cracked in seconds, although it is enough to deter casual snoopers / neighbours!

WPA is what you want. Note that home use will use PSK (pre-shared key) mode.

Unless of course you happen to have an 802.11x authentication server lying around. :p

SD

The BT home hub that was in my last rented place used WPA...

A B.T. engineer told me that you can actually find WEP Key creators for BT on the internet where you type in the SSID is it "BT-12432" and then it will automatically calculate the WEP key...

Not to sure, but it maybe be possible to change the home hub from WEP to WPA?

http://www.btfusionorder.bt.com/supp...aspx#wireless6

maybe it came deafult as WEP but it was changed to WPA...

As said, go with WPA, makes it much more secure as there are some snoopers that are not detered by WEP, and i have a feeling there are some neighbours that are the same "Students"...

To be even more secure after WPA is set you can feed in the MAC addresses of the computers on the net and then tick the box that says <no more connections> (or something similar )